Veeqo, the all-in-one solution for online retailers

Selling online is tough. And managing your inventory and shipping your orders can be a real nightmare. Well aware of this pain, Veeqo provides a cloud-based app which allows retailers to manage their orders and inventory across all their sales channels (ecommerce websites, Facebook, retail stores, eBay, Amazon, etc.). Potentially Veeqo it’s like the wizard of e-commerce management, the all-in-one solution that online retailers were dreaming.

Question. Veeqo is “a multi-channel inventory management software for businesses and non-profits”, how would you explain this concept to someone that has no experience in e-commerce?
Answer. It’s like an autopilot for online retailers. It enables them to ship more orders in less time by automating printing courier labels and magically syncing stock between their Amazon, eBay and web stores. Think of it has giving online retailers one dashboard for their whole business.

Q. Veeqo already integrates Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento or Amazon and seems to have a pretty solid product. What are your short-term challenges?
A. Feature and integration development, we have huge demand (and therefore long road map) for new integrations like USPS, Xero and more. We have 5 software engineers, but our biggest challenge is choosing the right road map.

Q. You have successfully completed three crowd funding rounds through Seedrs (raising £30,000, £120,000 and £4,155 respectively). Why crowdfunding and not angel investors or VCs? And why three consecutive times?
A. Our 1st and 2nd round were within 4 months of each other, and the reason we went for the £120k was due to huge demand from the 1st round. I decided that the money was enable us to accelerate our product much faster. The 3rd round in Seedrs was investors taking their pre-emption rights for a angel round that we will be announcing shortly. I have raised angel funding before with Jura Watches, but was facisnated by crowd funding and its ability to expose the business to a much wider investor network which would not only enhance you chance of raising the funding but more importantly increase the chances of finding some “smart money”, investors with domain knowledge.

Q. Competitors such us Stitch Labs raised more than $4M. Afraid?
A. Not afraid, we have only been operating for just over 12 months and already have a very competitive product compared to our competitors. We have had a lot of interest from various VC’s and it is something we will explore this year. We are also very confident we are building the right product. Stich Labs only does inventory control and not shipping automation, so you need to use anther system for that. Veeqo is the all-in-one solution for online retailers.

Q. Some time ago you started up the UK’s first online luxury watch retailer, Jura Watches. How is it like starting a second venture?
A. Veeqo was born from my frustration as an online retailer selling through a website, Amazon, eBay and retailers stores and not having a joined up system, which worked across all our sales channels. Having tried all the options out there and discovered not of them where quite right, it was an easy decision to create the perfect solution. Plus there is nothing quite like the feeling of fear/excitement of starting a new company.

Q. Swansea or London?
A. Swansea but I love to visit London. Swansea is great for tech startups for several reasons: cost of living is 50% less than London (longer burn rate!), we have 2 great universities producing some talented software engineers, our own Techhub and the best beach in the UK.

Q. In your opinion, which is the most critical factor for a startup?
A. Validating your product as soon as possible, which means getting paying customers and getting their feedback. There is the temptation to think “if we just build 1 more feature, customer will come running”.